[geeks] NAS storage opinions and bitching wanted

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Sun, Jun 24, 2007 at 03:27:46PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> At least we are finally starting to see some interesting stuff come out
> that doesn't cost as much as a Netapp box.


I've been doing it for years with just a cheap computer. I don't use RAID,
because I prefer to dedicate the space to data, and don't really care 
about the speed. 

My application is really just a large shared disk drive, which I access
via SMB from Windows machines, NFS from Solaris/Linux systems, and
AFS from Macintoshes. 

I also do computer to computer backup, for example I rsync my email, but
do a daily SMBTAR backup of my wife's email and "My Documents" directory
with a PERL program I wrote to backup outlook express files. She's moved
onto real Outlook, so it does both as needed.

The server that does it currently runs Fedora Core 5, but someday I'll
upgrade it to one of those "white box" enterprise distributions 
that stay current for a long time. 

The administration is not the difficult because there are so few users. Each
Windows system has it's own userid, and all of the *NIX and Macs are mine.

The only thing missing is backup, which could be done on a more automated
basis if I wanted to and had something to back up to. 

Since I run Linux, it also works as a CUPS printserver, but the only
printer I currently have is on my wife's Windows system. At one time
I had two inkjets on Windows systems, 2 laser printers, each on a different
print/file server and an HP plotter. 

I still use it that way. Since I have been in and out of doctor's offices
since February, I've taken to carrying around my medical records in a loose
leaf book.

Each time I get a new piece of paper, I scan it in on my wife's computer
(she has a multifunction HP unit) and save it as a jpeg file. I then
copy it to my fileserver using samba and using "convert" make postscript
files of the images. 

Once they are in postscript form, I can easily print them out using CUPS's
lpr command (which currently ends up back on the same HP unit) or fax
them with hylafax. 

Every time I need to send a message to my doctor, arrange to see a specialist,
or get permission from my HMO for something new, I just type a cover letter
in a text editor and out it goes with sendfax. Having it all in such an
easy to access form, accessable anywhere on the network has been a real
time and confusion saver.

The same with my MP3 and video (mostly downloaded TV shows) library.
Having given up on cheap DVD players dying a week after the warranty
ends, I replaced the one in the living room with a computer running mythtv.
I use it as a DVD and networked video player. Having those
files in a central location makes them easy to use and even my 11 year old
knows how to play them. :-)

I probably could use an NAS type device, but it works fine for me as
it is.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
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